Newcastle tech firm Allay looks to add 200 additional jobs after tripling profits

Newcastle fintech firm Allay is on the acquisition trail after trebling its profits to £3m last year. The growth was made after Allay more than doubled its turnover from £7m to £15 during 2016.

Allay has now kicked-off the next phase of its growth plans and aims to increase its headcount from 210 to 400 by the end of 2017.

The firm plans to carry out a number of acquisitions of mid-sized claims firms. Although no further details of the plans have been revealed, managing director Steven Bell said talks were already under way with potential acquisition targets.

Mr Bell commented: “It’s been a great year for Allay and we are in a fortunate position to have clear visibility of further 100% topline growth this year, with our profits also holding firm at 300% growth.”

He added: “We have the investment funds raised along with the technology and infrastructure to manage the exponential growth of claims transactions and we are already talking to several mid-sized claims firms about the acquisition.”

Allay has already carried out its first acquisition of the year when it bought Manchester-based firm ConnectedClaims in January, a firm that specialises in compensation arising from flight delays.

After launching in 2015, Allay has grown across the UK and now has four offices in Newcastle, Manchester, Haydock, and South Wales.

The firm focuses on providing claims processing to the financial services sector. It does this through the web and app-based processing platforms, which it developed in-house.

Allay has now handled over 1.5m consumer claims for the public, as well as for the financial services, travel, and legal sectors. The claims are focused on helping those who have been mis-sold PPI, packaged bank accounts, timeshares, solar panels, alarm systems, and flight delay compensation.

To capitalise on the flight delay side of the business, Allay recently launched its ‘airFair’ app, which allows users to check if they are eligible to claim for compensation after a flight delay.

Speaking about the firm’s software arm Mr Bell concluded: “Our technology team, Allay Logic, gives us a real edge over our competitors by allowing us to continually test and develop new platforms, whilst our main eco-system is built to process large volumes of claims in a variety of sectors, so we are geared both for more growth now and new opportunities ahead.”